HOME-Start Winchester’s newest batch of trained volunteers have received their wings and are ready to start work with the community’s most vulnerable families.

The family charity provides friendship and emotional and practical help to parents with at least one child aged under five.

The aim is to provide early support to families experiencing a wide range of difficulties such as isolation, low self-esteem, mental health issues, and lack of parenting skills.

The group supports more than 70 families a year living within a 10-mile radius of Winchester, including Alresford.

Speaking of the new intake of volunteers, senior co-ordinator Anne Macpherson, said: “They are a really vibrant group with many relevant life skills and, having successfully undertaken a rigorous training course, they are now raring to go.”

All Home-Start volunteers must be parents, or have worked with children, and each volunteer has been carefully matched with their first families.

They will work with their family every week over a six to 12-month period, supporting them in their own home as they try to cope with mental health, disability, multiple births, a lack of parenting skills or some of the many problems that can afflict a family struggling with the demands of young children.

The 10 volunteers were put through their paces, tackling issues like the importance of play, of listening and communicating and child development. Modules also covered personal safety, health and safety, mental health and depression, the safeguarding and welfare of children, equality, fairness and diversity, and working in partnership with other agencies such as the Health Visiting Service, Children’s Services, and signposting to the other agencies and services available in Winchester.

Home-Start Winchester’s patrons, Lady Wakeham and Sally Stewart, prepared and hosted a special lunch at the end of the course and presented certificates to the new recruits.